Expat Left Traumatized After Pet Beaten to Death in Front of Him

An English national was left badly shaken on Saturday when his pet dog was beaten to death in front of him by local urban management officials.

In a scene described as "surreal," the man was pushed aside by a chengguan official while four others held down his dog and beat it to death with sticks.

The man, who asked to remain anonymous, was walking his dog early in the morning on Saturday (May 24) near his Sihui residential compound when he was approached by the officials who initially demanded to see his registration papers for the dog. The man, who has a firm grasp of Mandarin, explained that he had only recently acquired the dog and that he was still in the process of registering the animal after having it vaccinated. At that point, the officials told him he was "out of order," before holding him back, beating his dog four times with sticks, and scooping the dog’s body into a bag.

The man, who works for a highly-respected Beijing international school, says he was traumatized by the episode and attempted to report it to local police who told him that without the registration documents, there was no recourse for him.

The sad episode serves as a stark reminder that pet owners must carry their registration documents with them at all times. The man said: "The main message here is that if you do not have the registration papers, the police are completely unwilling to assist you in any investigation. They told me that if I don’t have legitimate documentation then my claims are meaningless. The strongest message for pet owners is to be on the look out and to have these documents with them at all times. If you say you’re still applying for them, it’s meaningless."